When You're Older
by iheartmwpp
Summary: Oneshot. James, Sirius, and Peter have been avoiding Remus for a while now, and Remus is starting to worry he'll be abandoned. What are the three of them up to and why are they trying to distract Remus with some stupid map project?


_A/N: Ha HA, guys probably don't act like this at all. Ah well, it's all fluff anyway so I don't really care. Happy Birthday, person who doesn't exist! Love you!_

_WARNING: ALL OF THE CHARACTERS MENTIONED OR FEATURED IN THIS ONESHOT ARE HETEROSEXUAL. IF THIS IS DISAGREEABLE TO YOU, LOOK ELSEWHERE OR MAKE YOUR FLAME WORTH READING._

**Disclaimer:** WHEN WILL J.K. ROWLING AND POTTERMORE PROVE ME WRONG, DAMN IT. Oh and Raven Wolfmoon came up with a certain non-existent pet's name WAY way back. Gooooood times...

* * *

They were whispering again. They didn't think he noticed but he did. He'd been aware of it for over a year now.

At least once a day, Remus would catch James, Sirius, and Peter talking discreetly to each other. Whenever he came up to them they would immediately break it up and include him as if nothing had happened. Their "private" conversations had increased exponentially as they went through their fourth year. Worse, they kept using the upcoming exams to find excuses to avoid him, usually with James and Sirius saying they would leave him alone so he could study; even Peter said that he didn't want to bother Remus with revision help since he'd probably still fail anyway.

But more than once he'd seen Peter with the other two, pouring over Transfiguration books. It hurt more than he cared to admit, and each day that passed made him more and more worried about his place in the group.

Since the past full moon, however, they seemed to have lightened up considerably, even including Remus in their study sessions, for which he was profoundly grateful; not only did he desperately need the other three's help in Potions, but James and Sirius were going about tutoring Peter all wrong and desperately needed his intervention. He spent all of History of Magic and most of lunch catching Peter up on everything, and they were still going over Cheering Charms as they followed James and Sirius to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Professor Baker's back was to the class as they entered, giving the students a full view of the copious amounts of gray hair she'd missed when she had apparently attempted to charm it completely auburn. They all took their seats, Remus sitting with Peter as usual near the back while Sirius and James took the desk behind them.

Baker turned around and Summoned their homework essays on boggarts over to be placed on her desk in neat rows. Sirius had been tempted to coat his with Bulbadox powder but Remus had managed to talk him out of it at the last second. She was mad enough with their group as it was; she didn't need another excuse to put them in detention.

"Today we'll actually be working with boggarts," said Professor Baker to the class at large, Levitating a trunk to stand at the front desk beside her. "I'm looking for a volunteer to attempt to banish it. Let's see…Mr. Lupin, how about you?"

Remus went white. Baker was smiling at him, but he could plainly see her cold brown eyes narrowed in dislike. Every time Dumbledore brought in a new Defense professor, they were informed of his condition. He was lucky in his second year to have a teacher that was more or less indifferent to him, but the rest of the time he hadn't been so lucky.

Baker herself was always trying to find a way to let people find out about his condition as she was forbidden from actually flat-out telling anyone. So far, luckily, none of them had picked up on her hints she had given when she'd gone over werewolves immediately at the start of term. He supposed he had James and Sirius to thank for that, as they insisted on distracting the entire school by declaring a massive prank war on her. Normally he'd disapprove of attempting to prank a teacher, but he had to admit those bright orange moose antlers looked rather fetching on her.

This time, he feared she would get her wish. His boggart would probably be himself completely transformed—or worse, him just beginning to transform. Right in front of the whole class.

Everyone would know what he was. His fists clenched underneath the desk, his nails nearly piercing the skin of his palm. He would be found out. He would be out of Hogwarts by this time tomorrow.

"What's the matter, Mr. Lupin? We're all waiting for you."

Remus gulped and looked over at his friends, knowing that he couldn't get out of this but almost wishing they would miraculously find a way to end the class. Peter looked even more terrified than he felt. He probably didn't want to see what a fully transformed werewolf looked like, either. Remus had never known exactly what he looked like once the moon rose, and had hoped that he would never find out. Sure, he had read the descriptions and seen various pictures of fully transformed werewolves in books, but that was quite different from looking in a mirror.

Behind him, James and Sirius were pale as well, but their jaws were set and they both nodded in encouragement, assuring him without speaking that they would stand by him no matter what, just like they always did. Once again, he thanked whichever deity that happened to be looking out for him at the time that had blessed him with such fantastic friends.

He took a deep breath and stood, walking to the front of the class and hoping that he was exuding more confidence than he felt, which was next to nothing. Baker's smile turned into a dangerous grin as she flicked her wand at the lock of the trunk, opening it to reveal—

Some kind of silvery orb, floating a few feet above it.

Remus stared at it in confusion for several seconds before he realized that it was supposed to be the full moon. He almost sighed in relief but remembered with a start that the whole class was watching. Now he was worried that they'd figure it out as well.

Baker was staring up at the moon-boggart in confusion as well. Before she could realize what it was and point it out to the class, Remus quickly cast his mind around for something funny. He flashed back to a recent prank that involved putting cockroaches into the Slytherin Quidditch team's pumpkin juice. He raised his wand and said, in a clear voice, _"Riddikulus!"_

The moon turned into a large cockroach. Considering the class was made up of Gryffindors who had all witnessed the outcome of James's prank, they all burst into laughter as Remus took his seat once more, returning Peter and James's offered high fives with gusto. He smiled pleasantly up at Professor Baker, whose eyes were once more narrowed in hatred. She sneered at him as she levitated the cockroach back into the trunk and shut it tightly. Bolstered by Remus's success, many of the others wanted to try their hand at a boggart as well, but Baker ignored them as she moved on to give a lecture on runespoors, pausing to glare at Remus from time to time. Remus, for his part, tried to ignore the strange looks his classmates were sending him.

The end of the class couldn't have come soon enough. He heard James and Sirius get up and head for the door immediately once the bell rang; they never bothered to take any notes in class and therefore never had anything to put away, ensuring that they were always the first ones to leave. As Remus gathered his own things, he noticed that James and Sirius seemed to be having some kind of argument by the door. He frowned. This seemed different from the usual whispered discussions. They hardly ever fought about anything; what had happened to make them behave like this?

"You coming, Remus?" Peter asked from behind him, startling him out of his thoughts.

"Uh, yeah," he said, forcing himself back into reality. As he and Peter came closer to the door, a bit of what Sirius and James were harshly whispering to each other had become more audible.

"No, he's gonna think it's weird if we don't sit with him today," he thought he heard James adamantly reply to whatever Sirius had just said. Remus raised his eyebrows, turning to exchange a bemused glance with Peter, who was suddenly looking panicked. Peter hurriedly cleared his throat and James and Sirius instantly hoisted bright smiles onto their faces, as though their whispered conversation had never happened. Remus stared at them, wondering exactly what was going on.

Did they not want to sit with him anymore, either?

"So why's your worst fear crystal balls, then?" James piped up, shaking Remus out of his thoughts once more.

Remus glared at him.

"You know perfectly well what shape it took," he muttered.

"Yeah, _we_ do," said Sirius. "No one else will, though."

"How can you be so sure?" Remus replied, trying to keep his voice even as fear threatened to overwhelm him once again. "If anyone figures it out, I'll—"

"Wait, was it supposed to be the moon or something?" asked Peter, looking confused.

"There you go!" cried Sirius in triumph. "If Peter was fooled despite knowing what's going on, others will too."

"It _was_ me, though," Peter pointed out self-deprecatingly, but James was shaking his head.

"The only reason we figured it out is because we live in the same room as you ten months out of the year," he said reassuringly. "No one else would think to put those kinds of clues together, not unless they had a brain like Dumbledore's or something."

"And we've got the ones closest to it," added Sirius, swinging an arm around James's shoulders. "And since we already know, you officially have nothing to worry about."

"If you say so," said Remus, still slightly worried but managing a small smile. His friends always had a way of cheering him up…even if they apparently didn't want to sit next to him at mealtimes anymore…

…even if they didn't want to be his friends anymore…

The thought was driven from his mind after they went down to dinner. Remus had barely started in on his steak-and-kidney pie when he noticed a couple of girls who had been in class heading his way. His stomach clenched, though he tried to act as normally as possible.

"Hey, Lupin," said Marlene, coming over with Mary and dropping down onto the bench next to him. "What's with your strange fear of crystal balls?"

_Spell dodged._

Suppressing a sigh of relief and ignoring James's look of _I told you so_, Remus turned to face her.

"When I was six, a crystal ball fell onto my pet bunny's head, crushing its skull," he said, deadpan. "It was rather traumatic."

"Oh." Marlene's face turned a nasty shade of green. "Right then."

"Wait, when I went over, Mr. Hoppy was alive and kicking," said James, trying to conceal his smirk and failing.

"The one that got splattered was Mr. Hoppy I," replied Remus, grinning back at him. "The rabbit you met was Mr. Hoppy III."

"Ah, I see."

"What happened to Mr. Hoppy II?" asked Mary, sitting down beside Marlene.

"Eviscerated by a squirrel."

"…A squirrel." Sirius raised an eyebrow at Remus.

"It was a very vicious squirrel," Remus defended.

"And now Mr. Hoppy III is a very vicious rabbit," muttered James, shuddering.

"Oh come on," Marlene scoffed. "Is the big bad James Potter _really_ so terrified of a little bunny rabbit?"

"My first night over at Remus's house, summer before last, it jumped in my lap and tried to castrate me through my trousers," James replied matter-of-factly. "I still have the scars."

"…You have some really weird pets," Marlene told Remus.

"Hey, it likes me, I don't know what its problem was with James," Remus insisted, chuckling.

"I dunno," Peter spoke up. "I've heard that animals are really good judges of character. Maybe Mr. Hoppy was trying to warn you about James's secret evil nature."

"I knew it!" cried Sirius dramatically, scooting away from James as quickly as he could.

"Yes, I'm actually a very dark wizard in the making," said James, rolling his eyes. "Remus's ickle bunny rabbit of doom sensed this, and that's why he tried to bite off my broomstick."

"…You seriously call it your broomstick," said Sirius incredulously, inching further away from him.

"Yeah, so?"

Marlene snorted, raising an eyebrow at James.

"Too much information," muttered Mary, grimacing.

"Wait, you said castration before," Remus cut in.

"Yes, it tried to bite off my cock, we've been through this."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go sit by Lily," said Mary, getting up rather hurriedly.

"Actually, castration is just the removal of the testicles," Remus explained, ignoring Mary's sudden departure. "Emasculation would be the term you meant to use."

"Wouldn't getting your bollocks chopped off still be emasculating, though?" said Peter.

"Yes, if you cut off everything, it still falls under emasculation."

"But just the balls is castration."

"Yes, exactly."

"Why thank you, Professor Lupin," said James, punching Remus's arm.

"Why is it different though?" asked Marlene.

"Because the English language is stupid," Remus answered.

"I'll drink to that," said Sirius, chuckling and raising his glass of pumpkin juice in Remus's direction. Remus laughed along with the others, but he still couldn't get what he had overheard from Sirius's and James's conversation out of his head. It was just confirmation of what he'd been suspecting for months; James, Sirius, and Peter no longer wanted anything to do with him. He didn't want to confront them directly on this, for fear of them telling him that it was all in his head, or that they would confess that they didn't want to be friends with them anymore.

Remus suppressed a wince. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to take that. Aside from his parents, those three boys were all he had. He wasn't sure if he could take the thought of losing any one of them. And if all three suddenly vanished from his life…He didn't know what he'd do.

On the way out of the Great Hall, the four of them were stopped by Caradoc, Edgar, and Dorcas, who were also curious about Remus's boggart. While Remus told the fabricated story once more, Sirius made a big show of stretching his arms and wanting to turn in. James and Peter were quick to follow, James shooting an apologetic look in Remus's direction as he followed after Peter and Sirius. Remus waved them off as Edgar teased him about his poor choice of names for pets, trying to quench his ever-reoccurring feeling of abandonment. He knew he was over reacting to this whole thing.

He had to be.

…Wasn't he?

Finally managing to shake off Dorcas, who as usual demanded to see pictures of Mr. Hoppy III as she loved small cute things, Remus practically sprinted back to the Gryffindor common room. When he reached the spiral staircase that lead to the dorms, he climbed them as quietly as possible, hopeful that he would be able to get to the bottom of his friends' strange behavior. He thought he heard them talking as he got closer to the door to their shared dorm room. He put his ear to the door in order to listen better.

"I'm just frustrated that we can't talk about it in front of Remus," he heard Peter say. "It's slowing all of us down."

Remus frowned. He _knew_ they'd been hiding something. He quickly entered the room before the other two could answer Peter. Their heads jerked up when he came through the door, eyes widening. All of them were huddled together on James's bed, a couple of books opened in front of them.

"Can't talk about what in front of me?" Remus asked casually, trying to hide his nervousness.

Peter shifted his eyes as though looking for a way out as Sirius hurriedly threw a sheet over the books.

"Uh…"

"It's only going to be the best birthday surprise _ever,"_ said James quickly. A little _too_ quickly. And besides that…

"…It's May. My birthday's in March. You already got me that massive supply of Honeydukes candy."

"We know. That's why we want to prepare it, make sure it's perfect and everything."

"Oh dear," muttered Remus, shaking his head worriedly. He almost wanted to talk them out of it, knowing it would probably be something stupid and wondering exactly what was in store for him. "Wait…Why isn't it for Christmas? Doesn't that make more sense?"

"Because I don't think my part'll be ready by then," Peter muttered morosely. "I'm having so much trouble as it is, I don't think I'd be able to do it at all if these two weren't helping me."

"Relax, mate, we'll get you sorted," James reassured him. "And it _will_ happen by next March. Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time."

"If you say so…" Peter didn't look entirely convinced, though at least he appeared slightly less miserable than he had before.

"If you see us plotting together, without you, you are not to question it under any circumstances," Sirius said seriously, addressing Remus.

"Okay, okay, I got it," said Remus, holding up his hands in a placating gesture.

"You swear?" Peter piped up.

Remus nodded gravely.

"I solemnly swear," he stated.

"Good," said James, nodding approvingly. "Now get out so we can get back to work already."

Remus laughed and left them to it, heading for the library. Hopefully there he could find a quiet, secluded corner where he could collapse in relief. He hadn't lost them after all! Remus couldn't keep the smile off his face as he practically skipped down the corridors, ignoring the weird looks he garnered from other students as he passed them by.

* * *

Remus spent the first month of summer alone with his parents, reading all the letters that the other three would send to him, twice a day if not more, apologizing over and over again but insisting that they had to work on their surprise. Most of the time, Remus didn't mind it. However, there were times, particularly while he was recovering from the first full moon away from Hogwarts that year, when he wondered whether this show of friendship was all just a front and that they were slowly pulling away from him. He tried to talk himself out of it each time the thought occurred to him, but it got harder and harder as the holiday progressed.

At least until James, Sirius, and Peter all Flooed over and dragged him back to James's parents' house for the rest of the summer. The three of them seemed determined to reassure him that he wasn't alone, spending almost every waking minute that wasn't spent eating going over new pranks to pull on the Slytherins and working on new ways to sneak around the castle.

Sirius had gotten this mad idea to map out the entirety of Hogwarts, showcasing all of the secret passageways they had discovered over the years. James had then come up with the idea that it could be used to keep track of all the people at Hogwarts so they could move around better at night, since they could no longer all fit under the Invisibility Cloak at once; this would give them a better way to keep track of each other once they were forced to split up. Peter had, of course, immediately thrown his entire support behind the project, so naturally it was up to Remus to research cartography and how to add the necessary charms to do what they wanted it to do.

There was the small problem of Hogwarts being Unplottable, but he was pretty sure they could get around that since what they were planning was more of a massive building plan than an actual map anyway, as James had pointed out. Peter, surprisingly, had added that even if they were the same thing, Unplottable meant that you couldn't put Hogwarts on a map, not necessarily that you couldn't make a map of Hogwarts itself. Sirius didn't make fun of his intelligence for a whole week, and Peter had never looked more pleased with himself.

Remus somehow managed to squeeze in time to research this new assignment in between studying for his OWLs once school started up again, in addition to his newfound prefect duties. He was still reeling from the shock that not only was he the first known werewolf student at Hogwarts, he was also the first werewolf _prefect_ of Hogwarts. Though judging by what the alternatives were, all four of them felt confident that Dumbledore definitely made the right choice. Not that it stopped James and Sirius from teasing Remus endlessly about it, but he'd grown used to it over the previous four years. It _did_ make it hard to punish them for any of their usual misdeeds, however, or stop them from doing anything against school rules or dealing with Snape in general, especially when he ended up participating in most of it.

As he watched Peter run after James and Sirius as they climbed out of the portrait hole in February, once again apologizing for having to leave him behind, Remus sat down with one of his many books on how to charm parchment. He had a very strong suspicion that they had given him the task of creating a map for Hogwarts so he would have something to do while they went off and did…whatever it was they were doing. Flipping through the pages and scratching out some notes with his quill, he pondered what had happened before the winter holidays.

It looked like they had made some sort of breakthrough; James and Sirius had burst into the dorm, laughing loudly and clapping Peter on the back. Peter was practically in tears, he was so happy. All three of them looked extremely relieved about something, but when Remus tried to find out what happened, they had just waved it away with a mysterious, "We'll tell you when you're older." He could only hope that they meant his birthday like they'd originally said, and he was starting to get anxious. He really wanted to find out what they had been up to all this time. For the first time in years, he suddenly couldn't wait to turn another year older. Just one more transformation…

* * *

The only comfort Remus could take on the ninth of March was that James, Sirius, and Peter looked just as nervously excited as he did. Hardly any of them paid any attention during their lessons, and while that was somewhat normal for the other three, Remus had long ago mastered the art of pretending to concentrate when he wasn't able to so luckily none of the professors noticed. After dinner ended, Sirius took Remus aside while James and Peter ran off somewhere and told him to wait up in their dorm room. They would come and get him when the time was right.

Remus hurried off to the Gryffindor common room, nodding distractedly at the few in his year who wished him a happy early birthday, and headed up the spiral staircase. He glanced around and peaked behind all the curtains for any sign of his friends. Finding no one and starting to get really anxious, he busied himself with homework to take his mind off of it.

He as shocked at how quickly he'd completed it when he looked at Peter's clock and saw that it was only half past eight. Wasn't OWL homework supposed to last a lot longer than this? And yet he was pretty sure that he was a couple weeks ahead in the reading for everything but Potions, which was too complex for him to figure out without James or Sirius's help. Hell, even Peter understood the material better than he did.

Sighing and resigning himself to a longer wait, he pulled out his notes on cartography and went over the charms again. He had a feeling that they were ready to start actually mapping out the castle, and he'd be able to add the charms after the initial drafts were completed.

He'd cracked open another book on cartography he hadn't read yet when the door opened and James and Sirius came back into the room, grinning broadly.

"Sorry it took so long," said James, sounding sincere as he went for his trunk.

"It's nearly eleven thirty," said Remus, closing his book. "I'm normally asleep by this point."

"It's nearly your birthday, you should get to stay up as late as you want."

"Where's Peter?" Remus asked as James got the Cloak out of his trunk.

"He's already there, waiting for us," Sirius assured him. They quickly covered themselves with the Cloak (Sirius had to bend down, he was getting so tall) and sneaked out of Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady didn't even bother to question the unseen persons that went through, being far too used to it by now.

They were almost caught by Filch by the history of magic classroom, but James levitated a dungbomb over to the other side of the corridor to distract him. From there, they met no further obstacles and were able to get out of the castle and down to the Whomping Willow with relative ease. Remus levitated a big stick so it poked the correct knot, and the three of them headed down into the tunnel.

"Wow, we timed it almost perfectly," James muttered once they reached the Shack, checking his watch. "It's five past midnight. Happy birthday, Remus!" He sent Remus a broad grin as he led the way upstairs. Sirius clapped Remus on the shoulder as he slipped past him to stand next to James.

Remus, meanwhile, was looking around in confusion.

"Where's Peter?" he inquired. "I thought you said he was here already."

James and Sirius looked at each other and smirked. James reached into the pocket of his robes, pulled out a large rat, and held it out so Remus could see.

"…You got me a pet rat for my birthday?" said Remus, still puzzled. Before he could hold out his hand to take it, however, James placed the rat on the floor and stood back.

A head shot upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, Peter was standing where the rat had been, a bright smile on his face as he spread his arms wide.

"Happy birthday!" he shouted excitedly.

Remus stared at him, his mouth wide open. Disbelievingly, he turned to the other two only to find a large, shaggy black dog and a regal-looking stag where his other two best friends should have been. In a state of total shock, he collapsed heavily onto the bed. The dog immediately trotted over to him and rested its head on Remus's lap. Remus stared at the dog and tried not to hyperventilate. The stag transformed back into James, who walked over and sat on the bed next to Remus, Peter quickly scurrying to sit on Remus's other side.

"We did our research," James said quietly, placing a hand on Remus's shoulder and calming him down. "Werewolves are only a danger to humans. They don't affect animals at all, they don't even bother to _hurt_ them." When Remus turned to stare at him, James smiled gently. "We can keep you company now," he said. "You'll never have to be alone again."

Remus burst into tears. James moved his hand to his back and rubbed it gently as Remus hunched over, sobbing. Peter awkwardly copied James, stammering words of comfort. Whimpering, the dog lifted itself up and started licking Remus's face. James looked disgusted but Peter and Remus both burst out laughing.

"Get off!" Remus cried in between laughs. He wiped away the combination of tears and saliva as the dog obeyed, hopping down to the floor and beginning to chase its tail, causing Peter to let out a shriek of laugher.

"Roll over!" James commanded suddenly, chuckling as the dog complied, going over to the other side of the room and rolling over three times in quick succession.

"Play dead!" cried Peter. The dog lay flat on its back with its legs in the air and its tongue lolling out. The three boys huddled on the bed cracked up.

"Be careful, he's not house trained," said James, smirking. The dog instantly ran up to him and lifted its leg. "Don't you dare!" James yelled, pulling his legs up onto the bed as the other two cackled and the dog barked in a way that was eerily reminiscent of Sirius's laughter.

Remus wiped away a few more tears with the back of his hand as he hesitantly held out his other hand toward the dog. The dog immediately walked up to him and pressed its face into Remus's hand, allowing him to pet the soft fur on the top of his head and to scratch it behind the ears.

"His fur is so soft," Remus said quietly, yelping in surprise when he was suddenly scratching a very human Sirius behind his ears. Sirius laughed as he batted Remus's hand away.

"Well of course," he said amusedly. "I have fantastic hair, after all, why shouldn't my fur be the same?" Remus laughed as he pushed him over. James, grinning, stood up and transformed once more, bending down to nudge Remus with its nose. The stag was so tall that Remus had to stand up to be level with it, and even then the stag was still taller than him. Remus hesitantly pat the stag on the neck, stretching upward to feel its antlers.

"They feel funny," he commented, tracing the soft layer of velvet that covered them. He noticed Peter transforming in the corner of his eye and felt the rat crawl up his body until it was perched on Remus's shoulder. Remus stroked the rat's head with a finger. He sniffed loudly, chuckling as Sirius transformed again as well and the dog rubbed its side across Remus's legs, almost like a cat.

It suddenly dawned on Remus exactly what the other three had done. They had broken Wizarding law, not just simple school rules; they had gone out of their way to defy the Ministry of Magic itself. In addition, they had undergone an extremely dangerous and difficult process, one that Professor McGonagall had graphically illustrated what could go wrong for anyone who wasn't fully prepared. He had to refrain from rolling his eyes. Of course they went through with it, they'd only see the danger as a challenge. But all of that paled in comparison to his true concern.

"How can you be so sure I won't end up hurting you?" he whispered, his voiced laced with anxiety.

The dog and the stag looked at each other. The dog transformed back and Sirius looked straight at Remus and said, "We're not."

"Then I can't let you do this," said Remus. "I…You have no idea how much I appreciate it, but—"

"We don't care," said Sirius firmly. "We're always going to be there for you, whether you like it or not."

"We knew the risks," said James after he changed back. "We're willing to take them. That's what this was all about, after all."

The rat jumped back on the bed and transformed as well.

"I'm so small you won't be able to catch me anyway!" Peter said cheerfully. "And I'm really fast, even Sirius can't catch me!"

"It's true, I've tried," said Sirius. "And I'm not all that slow myself."

"You've…You've been practicing, then?" asked Remus.

"That's why we waited to show you," said James. "We've all been like this for about a week now, but we wanted to make sure we would be ready."

"We made sure Peter could do it before James and I got it down," said Sirius.

"Is that why you were so excited before winter break?" said Remus, looking down at Peter.

"I really didn't thing I would be able to get it," said Peter, looking down. "Never mind by the deadline, I didn't think I would ever be able to do this at all."

"And yet you make a very fine rat," said James, smiling and clapping a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Perfect for finding whatever secret passageways we haven't found yet, am I right?"

"You really think we haven't found them all, yet?"

"This castle is huge, there's got to be some part of the castle we haven't seen yet. I'm keen to find the Chamber of Secrets, myself," said James.

"That's just a myth," said Remus automatically, "and don't change the subject, I could seriously hurt one of you. I might even…" He looked awkwardly at James.

"I know wolves hunt deer," said James, waving it away. "I'm faster than Sirius, don't worry."

"I…Okay. Okay, we'll try." Remus never could say no to any of them. He looked at the three of them, standing around him and smiling broadly, so grateful to them, so blessed to have them as his friends, that he had no idea how to express it. They understood, though, and they grabbed him and pulled him into a massive group hug.

"Also there's a box of Honeydukes's finest in my trunk so we have tangible evidence that we gave you something," said Sirius.

"No you won't," said Remus, sniffling a little. "It'll be gone in about ten minutes."

"We figured as much," said James, laughing and clapping Remus on the back once more. "Come on, then, lads, best we head back then, eh?"

Peter transformed into a rat once more. Remus picked him up and placed him on his shoulder as James wrapped the Cloak around himself, Sirius, and Remus. Together, they headed back up to the castle, already planning their first test run for the full moon next week.

* * *

_A/N: ...This all turned out way better in my head. Then again, so do most things I come up with. *shrug* It's okay I guess. Been sitting on the Mr. Hoppy conversation for a couple years, glad I finally found an excuse to use it even if it's the only thing besides the set-up that I actually like about this thingy-thing of thingness. Also why am I making Remus a huge crybaby in like everything I write, that's not cool._

_**Review or Sirius'll prove he's not house-trained.**_


End file.
